Characters: The Affliction
Name: Not applicable
Height: Variable (most commonly about 650 feet or 200 meters tall)
Weight: Variable
Hair: Not applicable, has remnants of a dwarf nebula cascading around its head
Eyes: Black
Ethnicity: Not applicable
Known relatives: Not applicable
Education: Not applicable
Aliases/nicknames: Not applicable
Group Affiliation: Formerly associated with the Pan-Galactic Justice Directorate, former companion of The Elegance
Distinguishing characteristics: Variable gender
Skills/abilities: The Affliction has a host of intensively dangerous powers. Formerly gifted with the power of stimulating renewal in matter (cells, stars, et cetera), the Affliction has since used that power to push things beyond their prime state. Most commonly, s/he could go to a red star and renew it back to its earlier form, but wouldn't stop, forcing the star to dissipate explosively and turn whatever is nearby into a dense soup of constituent atoms and molecules. This power can also be used to force cells to grow uncontrollably, like a cancer, killing the organism. After huge expenditures of this power, like reverse detonating a star, the Affliction requires a regeneration period of six Earth days. When seeking to spread the effect of its power, the Affliction can manifest virtally countless fluttering shapes that many have called "shadow angels" -- once a symbol of hope throughout the universe, now a terrifying harbinger.
The Affliction is able to travel through space unaided at several times the speed of light, can teleport over vast interstellar distances, is impervious to conventional force and capable of lifting (pressing) weights in excess of 10,000 tons.
Best known for: The destruction of a billion, billion star systems
Place of birth: The core of a star, forty seven billion light years from Earth.
Marital status: Bitterly brokenhearted
Brief personal history: Twelve billion years ago, as the universe was settling in to what it would be, a great astral power was born in the heart of a star. This spirit, which came to be seen and interpreted differently by billions of cultures across the galaxy, was called The Revival (as that translates through every alien language) as it traveled from world to world bringing a spirit of new beginnings and hope, appearing as it was easiest for the mortals of those worlds to comprehend, changing gender and appearance based on their ability to understand, rarely caring about the finer details but satisfied in the use of its power. At some point, The Revival became an ally of the Pan-Galactic Justice Directorate, being willing and able to provide first responder aid in crisis areas.
Everything was fine for eight billion years until The Revival landed on the world Leto 23, a planet savaged by solar winds and drought. There, holding a newborn that was dying, its parents already fallen from dehydration, was a long lived cosmic entity, the first other such being the Revival had ever encountered. This being was called The Elegance, and with that moment the Revival had an epiphany about its mission and why it did its work. The Elegance was the spirit of fleeting beauty, the essence of allure, and the Revival saw in the dying child's face a simple dream of existence. The Revival instantly created sustenance for the child, and the Elegance smiled at the Revival, an expression of such gratitude and wonder that the Revival had no choice but to fall in love.
For a billion years, The Revival followed the Elegance wherever the latter entity went and they shared a romance, swapping gender and shape as mood dictated, their passion creating whole galaxies. Unfortunately, the Revival did not understand the nature of The Elegance, and fate intervened. The Elegance's existence was not a secret, and a galactic tyrant named Decius Marvv spent quadrillions of credits to acquire the Elegance as his own pet.
The Elegance could neither be contained nor was it immortal, and while the Revival was saving an inhabited system from the aftermath of a rain of rogue comets, the Elegance was hunted and accidentally murdered on the desert world Thealis. The failed mercenaries of Marvv fled and the world absorbed the blood of the Elegance, becoming a delicate crystaline lattice that came to be called Heavenstone.
The Revival found its love entombed in crystal, forever gone, and wept for ten thousand years, its tears carving caverns in the crystal and carmelizing Thealis' surface. Then, fists shaking with rage, the Revival foreswore its mission and sought vengeance on a universe that could create and then take such a treasure from someone.
Marvv's homeworld was the first one that saw the entity formerly known as the Revival coming, and had no idea what hit it. Marvv's throne sat on Horzhul, a planet on the outer edge of a spiral galaxy known on Earth as NGC 3559, more than 300 light years from Earth. Its yellow star began to shrink into a white dwarf, and the population saw temperatures dive a hundred degrees in an hour. The people of Horzul, including Marvv and his mercenaries, froze to death before their star finally imploded, destroying every planet around it. A merchant vessel was headed to Horzhul and barely escaped the carnage, recording it all and transmitting it to galactic news agencies, who quickly asked the question, "Has The Renewal Become An Affliction?"
The newly dubbed Affliction's former allies in the Pan Galactic Justice Directorate sent hundreds of thousands of its Advocates to try and stop the threat. None of them survived. Finally, through observation and research, the legendary Assistant District Advocate P'ol Moon'kee discovered the regeneration period the Affliction required after expending its power and led a squad including rookie Advocate Sriram Subramanian to capture and contain the Affliction in a singularity trap, a null-time space at the center of a trinary black hole. The Affliction remained there until [CONTENT REDACTED UNTIL TINDERBOX SPEAKS WITH HASSAN KHAN].
Written by Hannibal Tabu
Character design by Quinn McGowan